My "System" files are taking 132Gb space on my SSD. How do I reduce this to the ~10Gb it should be ?

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Level 1

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My "System" files are taking 132Gb space on my SSD. How do I reduce this to the ~10Gb it should be ?

I have a MacBook Pro with 256Gb SSD. I've just tried downloading and installing a system update, but was shocked to see that there is insufficient disc space available. When I looked at the system, I see that 132Gb is taken up with "System" - something I can't access.

Surely this can't be right ?

How do I get this back down to the 10Gb, or whatever it should be ?

Any help most appreciated !

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on May 28, 2020 12:33 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

May 28, 2020 1:41 PM in response to Blacky58

Get Correct Storage Information

Do not use the information from the Storage section of the About This Mac dialog. Ignore the Storage information as it is typically wrong. To find out the correct information for any disk: Select a Desktop disk icon. Press Command-I to open the Get Info window and look at the topmost panel displayed. You will find the disk information displayed for Capacity, Available, and Used. If you have more than one disk/partition then repeat for each one on your Desktop.

The categories found in the Storage section of About This Mac is simply an arbitrary way of displaying files on your drive. There are no such categories actually on the drive.

How to Free Up Space on The Hard Drive

You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
Also, see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
What is 'Other' and 'Purgeable' in About This Mac?
Files That Make Up the 'Other' Storage Category, and How to Remove Them
Free up storage space on your Mac.
See Where did my Disk Space go?.
Be sure to Empty the Trash to recover the space.
Replace the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Use OmniDiskSweeper or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

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Answer 2

Blacky58 Author

Level 1

5 points

May 30, 2020 5:51 AM in response to Blacky58

Thanks, Kappy, - I do appreciate all of that.

I've ended up reformatting the SSD drive and reinstalling everything from scratch. - Perhaps using a sledgehammer to shell an egg, but it's all back up and running fine now, with 220 Gb free space on my SSD drive once more.

I have switched off Automatic Backup on Time Machine, though !

Stay safe and thanks once again.

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My "System" files are taking 132Gb space on my SSD. How do I reduce this to the ~10Gb it should be ?

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